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Monday, November 19, 2012

Thankfulness: 19 - Tom and Irma's Wedding

Today, I'm continuing on the "I'm thankful for family" vein by sharing about a very special event that happened about a month ago. My brother in law, Tom, got married! In true Tom fashion, he and Irma wanted to get married in a place that would be a ton of fun, so on an early Saturday morning in October, we headed to Vegas.

Along the way, we stopped in Wickenberg for breakfast. We stopped at the Horseshoe cafe where we didn't know what we were getting into. I ordered one biscuit with gravy on the side and Ed? One pancake and some eggs.

This is what Ed got:

Umm.. yeah. Our jaws basically dropped. Mine wasn't quite so crazy, though it came with about 2 cups of gravy. Apparently the full biscuit order comes with 32 ounces of gravy! Needless to say, even with me helping him a little with the pancakes, we still had half a pancake left when we left, which was good for a snack in the car later.

(view from our room at the Luxor)

We got to Vegas about 10:15, about 5 hours after we left and immediately ran into Keven and Noemi. We all got checked in and met up with the rest of the family. The boys had to go pick up Tom's suit. Sabine and her friend had to go to the doctor's (her friend wasn't feeling well), and the bride to be wanted to rest up. So, Noemi and I went out for lunch. The funny thing is that places in Vegas try to be one stop shops, so we had multiple food choices without ever leaving the hotel. We ended up going for a pub, which was a lot of fun.

Afterwards, it was our turn to also go rest in our respective rooms. Ed showed up about 45 minutes later and we ended up accidentally falling asleep. We woke up about 5 minutes before 4 (for the 4:30 wedding) and quickly got into action. I hurriedly got dressed and rushed down to the bridal suite, where Irma was putting the finishing touches on her look.

Noemi did a great job helping Irma get ready. Such pretty sisters-in-law!

It was fun to be on the other side of the wedding, hearing Irma's nervousness and excitement of her wedding, which reminded me of how nervous I was leading up to my wedding. Something about having all that focus on you makes everyone, I'm sure, get those butterflies in their stomach.

Once Irma was all ready, she and Noemi headed to the "staging area" while I headed out to the foyer to see everyone else.

Sabine was happy to be marrying off her last single son.

The brothers all looked great, and Tom looked very excited for his wedding.

It was hard to know what to expect from a wedding in Vegas, but we were all really impressed with the ceremony. The room was beautiful, and the officiant did a wonderful job.

Ed and I talked later about how he and his brothers all had very different styled weddings, but that in essence, they all are the same, in that they are a meaningful and very special ceremonies. I so appreciate that I got to see both of Ed's brothers marry such perfect matches for them.

After beautiful vows and the exchange of rings, they were officially married.

After the ceremony, we waited outside the chapel while the bride and groom got their pictures taken.

Finally, Tom and Irma joined us outside.

They agreed to do some more posing for us, so that we could get our own shots of the bride and groom.

We had a bit of time before our dinner reservations, so we headed to the Mexican restaurant in the Luxor

for some drinks. While we all got drinks, the bride and groom got some shots of tequila to commemorate the occasion.

Ed and I also decided to have ones as well. I've got to say, I don't know that I've done one of those since college (reliving college experiences ended up being a bit of a theme for this night). We splurged for Patron, and it was very tasty.

Just like they wanted, the wedding was already living up to the promise of being lots of fun.

We had a really nice time just hanging out together, chatting, snacking, and relaxing.

From here, we headed to Tender, the wonderful steakhouse here. It was pretty darn fabulous. One of the wonderful things about having such a small, family wedding is that we could all sit down together at one table for the meal.

After dinner, we had the traditional cutting of the cake. It was so delicious and the perfect end to our meal.

All in all, a wonderful celebration.

Now, one might think this was the end of the evening. Well, they would be wrong. Since we couldn't come into town before the wedding day, the bride and groom decided to do things a little untraditionally to fit in all the traditional events. This meant that following the reception, we split up to have our respective bachelor/bachelorette parties. I think I'll leave the specifics with the "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" tradition, but we all enjoyed a night on the town, which the ladies followed up with dancing. It was so fun to get to spend some time with just Irma and Noemi, especially since they are much more "hip" than me and actually, you know, go out dancing sometimes. For being the youngest, I really don't live up to it, considering Ed and I have never, that I can remember, gone out clubbing. I'm pretty sure my last experience with that was when I was studying abroad in college. But, it was a great bonding experience and a lot of fun.

The boys met up with us around 1am, and we got to bed around 2. I definitely felt like I got to enjoy the traditional Vegas experience, and I have to say, it was really fun. We definitely did Vegas with the right group :).

The next morning, Ed and I ended up waking up early, around 6:45, and enjoyed going for a walk, having breakfast, and a last little bit of electronic poker before we packed up.

It was a whirlwind of a trip, but an incredibly fun and meaningful one.

Experiences like this make me so thankful for being a part of Ed's side of the family.

It's been so interesting to gain this whole other family, where the dynamics are all very different from my own. Ed and I talked about how it would be hard to imagine doing a similar event with my family (though, who knows, maybe it could be fun to try :) ). We had such an amazing time, and it makes us excited for the next time we all get to be together.

So, I am thankful for the Geaney/Oliver/Lyon family and my place in it :).

2 comments:

Love the Horseshoe Cafe! Apparently it depends on what cook you get on the size of the pancake. Must have been a good morning for you guys. Hehehe. I order their french toast, it is yummy too! Sounds like you had a great time in Vegas. I had to respond because I lived on the farthest out part of Surprise and would go into Wickenburg for breakfast a few times. :)

Thanks for replying! Yeah, we were pretty shocked about the pancakes. Is the french toast regular sized? We did drive through Surprise - it's so crazy to have such big cities way out on the outskirts of the Phoenix area. So pretty, though with all that nature around :).

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About Me

I am a California native currently living in Arizona with my husband of 4 years, Ed. We came here to follow Ed's dream of being a university professor. I just finished my 6th year of teaching, and am lucky enough to be taking this next year off to take care of our sweet little boy.